Some known food products, including food patties such as chicken and hamburger patties, are cooked initially in a food processing plant, then frozen, and subsequently shipped to a retail outlet, e.g., a grocery store or supermarket, for sale to a consumer. After initial cooking within the food processing plant, samples of the cooked food product are removed from a production conveyor, and the temperature of the cooked food product samples are measured to ensure that a minimum temperature of the food product is equal to or exceeds a minimum temperature, to kill bacteria. Known methods of measuring the temperature of a cooked food product include placing the food product on a support surface and manually inserting a temperature sensor into the food product, in an uncontrolled manner.